13th resident passes away at Newmarch House – as NSW Premier slams Anglicare for “horrific” situation

The 74-year-old male resident who had tested positive for COVID-19 passed away on Thursday afternoon, leading the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to attack the operator on ABC News Breakfast on Friday.

“We’ve called on the federal minister and also appreciate the Federal Government’s involved the aged care assurance advocacy association to deal with the matter, to intervene, and we’ve called for that,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“What’s happening there isn’t acceptable and unfortunately you do notice a difference in the way people who run these aged care homes across the nation are dealing with the issue.”

“Some are doing it better than others. And unfortunately, this particular operator has been left wanting on a number of levels.”

There have now been 59 COVID-19 cases confirmed at Newmarch House – 37 residents and 22 staff.

While Anglicare says communication with families is improving and window visits are proving successful, they have again flagged that the outbreak will be ongoing.

“Given the experience from other aged care sites that have had an outbreak of COVID-19 both here and overseas, it is very likely we will be dealing with the devastating impacts of this virus for some weeks to come,” they said in a statement.

Despite this, the NSW Premier says she supports Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s call for aged care homes to allow family members to visits.

“We’ve always supported what the national cabinet has determined and that is that relatives should not be prevented from visiting their loved ones,” she said.

“I support the Prime Minister in this, aged care operators need to better manage themselves so they provide access to loved ones, often cutting off that human contact, or that visit, can be detrimental to the health of the resident but also their family.”

However, Ms Berejiklian added that despite NSW relaxing its social distancing rules to allow two adults to visit, she would not be visiting her own elderly parents in their home.

“Only because I’m in contact with so many people, and I worry about potentially passing it onto others,” she said. “As painful as it is, I’ll be standing in the driveway and talking to my parents tomorrow. But at least I’ll be able to do that.”

A sign of the double standards that still apply to aged care operators.